UN General Assembly seeks ICJ opinion on Israel’s aid obligations to Palestinians

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approves a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to assess Israel’s obligations to assist Palestinians, amid accusations Israel is restricting the amount of aid entering Gaza.

Israel has claimed throughout the ongoing war that it has facilitated the transfer of tens of thousands of aid trucks with enough food to provide for Gaza’s nutritional needs, and has blamed the UN for not scaling up its logistics and distribution operations.

The UN’s full membership votes to request an ICJ advisory opinion which, though not binding, can serve to heighten pressure on countries — as happened in July when it voted that should Israel entirely pull out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem within a year.

The resolution seeking the advisory opinion from the UN’s top court is brought by Norway, and co-sponsored by Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia among others. It wins backing from 137 countries, while 12 object, and 22 abstain.

The ICJ will be asked to consider what Israel is obliged to do to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.”

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon decries the move, saying, “The ICJ now has been weaponized… its advisory opinions undermined to attack Israel” and calling the process an “endless loop of bias.”